Nov 11, 2012

Baked oatmeal with ripe bananas, pumpkin and pecans is the perfect way to start your morning!

When this first came out of the oven, I wasn't so sure...but after my first bite I knew I had a winner!

Ever think about how perfect a banana is? My favorite way to eat them is when they are bright yellow, with no brown spots. I always throw a banana in my bag for a quick snack on the go, or after a work-out, but does that mean when they get all dark brown they are bad?

This year I was thrilled to attend Dole's first ever Banana Summit, held
in Anaheim California at Disney's California Adventure Resort. I'm a
bit behind covering the summit thanks to Hurricane Sandy that knocked
out my power for 12 days, but I finally got my power back and was
finally able to use my oven. Hurray!

What is a "Banana Summit" you ask? Pretty much what it sounds like, a few days with wonderful blogger friends where we literally ate, drank and experienced bananas in every way possible.

And since I'm bananas for bananas (corny, I know) I was happy to be a part of this wonderful group of people. And getting to spend a day at Disneyland made me feel like a kid again. Why Disney? Disney collaborates with many companies and one of them happens to be Dole. At the famous Enchanted Tiki Room inside the Magic Kingdom I tried my first "Dole Whip" which was as good as I heard it was. And sitting inside the Enchanted Tiki Room brought me back to my childhood trip there.

If you have ripe bananas laying around, give this baked oatmeal a try. It's so good, it almost tastes like a banana-pumpkin nut bread. In fact, I told my toddler it was cake, and she ate it (cold).

161 comments
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Yum...that looks fabulous! I'm bananas for bananas too! ;) I'm with you, if I'm eating them alone, they have to be perfectly yellow, but if I'm throwing them in a smoothie or baking with them, the browner the better.

Sounds delicious! I'm questioning the WW points. I put this in the recipe builder on the Weight Watchers site. Bananas are 0. I put the recipe in with the bananas, it comes out as 6 points + per serving. If I leave out the bananas it comes up as a 4. I understand why the recipe builder calculates it higher, because it is basing the calculation on the combined nutritional information that includes the bananas. But if fruit and veggies are 0, do we need to include these ingredients when calculating a recipe? What do you think the REAL points + value. is...6 or 4???

Baking brings out ALL the sugar content (which is why it used to be 2pt per serving. WW wanted to encourage eating fruits (because who ever got fat from eating bananas!)but when we cook them, the natural sugars concentrate. Still better than a chocolate bar tho :)

I am a WW online member who has currently lost 70 lbs. on the program (in 16 months). Instead of using the recipe builder (if there are fruits and vegetables listed in a recipe) I record it as a meal, so the fruits and vegetables are not included in the total points. I know that's not the official WW policy (although I got the idea long ago from the website) but that policy has always struck me as wrong -- and designed to discourage members from using recipes with vegetables in them. Your mileage may vary, of course.

This issue was one of the things that made me dump WW online in favor of myfitnesspal - I didn't like the fact that if I sauteed a pound of kale in a teaspoon of olive oil, it had points, but if I ate it raw it didn't.

Can you please provide clarification on the honey? Recipe says drizzle 1 tbsp. of honey over bananas. Then later says add remaining honey to the pumpkin mixture. According to the ingredient list, I won't have any honey left. Did you mean drizzle 1 tsp. over the bananas?

Reminds me of your other baked oatmeal recipe with blueberries... Wish I had the new recipe yeaterday!! Made the oatmeal bake for the 2nd time for a brunch... People basically licked the dish clean :):) keep up the awesome work!!!

I have been making recipes from your blog for quite some time now and just saw you were from Oceanside...I live in Wantagh and I too lost power for 12 days. I just wanted to thank you for inspiring me to get back in the kitchen this week after a very rough 2 weeks!!!

You can make your own pumpkin pie spice - I think it's 4 common spices if I remember correctly (cinnamon, ginger, allspice and cloves, I think, though sometimes nutmeg is used instead of cloves).And I've made this with mashed sweet potato and it is delicious.

This is delicious! I read it and had all of the ingredients already, so I made it today. It makes a wonderful breakfast for any time, and it is also special enough to serve to guests. Thanks for yet another great recipe, Gina!

When I saw this recipe we were out of oatmeal, so I used oat flour (1/2 cup), ground flax meal (1/4 cup) and ww flour (1/4 cup) in its place. After it had baked it was a little dry in the middle for our taste, so we poked a few holes in it and splashed a 1/3 cup pineapple juice over the top and holes, and drizzled 1 tbsp of maple syrup. Then baked for 15 more mins at 375. OMG - this stuff is to die for! Some low fat vanilla yogurt on top...it's like dessert for breakfast!

Mar BD, I also found this to be rather dry in the middle, even though I used the quick oats as called for in the recipe. I like your idea with the pineapple juice (poking holes and pouring over toward the end), plus I think the maple syrup is brilliant. I wish I had thought of that. My husband suggested just mixing the pumpkin mix and oats together (and pouring all over bananas, instead of doing layers of wet/dry/wet) so that the oats wouldn't be so much like a dusty center. I thought, "sure if I ever make this again" (and I probably will, but with some adjustments), but I like how you saved the day and fixed things on the spot. :)

My daughter is gluten intolerant. Any suggestions how to make this GF? My whole family loves whatever I make from your kitchen! A fave: Chicken Pot Pie Soup! Great for even fussy eaters!!! Thanks so much!!

Anon, I halved this recipe since it was only myself who was going to be eating it (using 1 banana instead of 3), so to account for that I just substituted 2 tsp water, 2 tsp oil, and 1/2 tsp baking powder (for an equivalent of 1 egg it called for 1 1/2 tbsp water, 1 1/2 tbsp oil, and 1 tsp baking powder). It came out perfect like pumpkin pie on top! I'm not sure what an elimination diet is or whether oil would be included in that, but it worked great! Google some ideas on substituting eggs in baking recipes as there are many other ways to do so :)

Hi Gina,I just made this recipe and it did not turn out well at all. The bananas burnt to the bottom of the pan (even though the pan was oiled prior) and the oatmeal mixture remained completely dry and therefore, did not cook. In the photos you posted it looks like maybe the milk was meant to be poured over the bananas and not mixed in with the pumpkin?? I think this would have prevented the bananas from burning and provided the moisture needed for the oatmeal mixture.

The first time I tried the blueberry banana baked oatmeal I thought it was too sweet for me as well. But it's very easy to adjust for that. I've been making Gina's baked oatmeal recipe with just half the amount of sweetener in the recipe. The baked bananas already provide a good amount of sweetness into the dish. So if you don't have any other problem with this recipe except for the sweetness, maybe next time you can try it without the brown sugar, or just 1 tbsp of brown sugar instead of 3.

Great recipe...I enjoyed it. Made my house smell so good. I made my son eat several bites but he didn't like it. Sent some with my husband to work so we'll see. Next I am making the beef and barley soup and will try it in the crockpot. Thanks for the recipes gins...I do most of my cooking off ur website. Amy

I was so excited that I had everything at home for this recipe... so I made it last night when I got home from work. It's awesome! My husband didn't like it, but he doesn't really like oatmeal. I love it and it's MY breakfast so I'll be keeping this recipe for future use. YUM!

I just made this this morning with two changes. I used regular (old fashioned) oats instead of quick cooking, and I skipped the step about baking the bananas for 15 minutes first. I just put it all in at once and baked for 30 minutes. Perfect! It was delicious with a little maple syrup on it (real, of course).

Thanks Gina! loved this & will also try it with a mix of apples & bananas too. The BIG surprise was that the hubby loved it too! I baked it on a Sunday night and we bring it to work for breakfast. I add a little milk & reheat in the microwave, delish! Yet another keeper...-Kim

I liked this, but wasn't amazed. For one, I think it was too sweet. A pinch of salt didn't really cut it...I think it needs a tad more. Also, the bananas and pumpkin together is too mushy for me. I think apples will work better. Great idea though,

Getting ready to make this for the 2nd time this morning. I followed the recipe exactly as is and loved it. Ate it leftover for breakfast throughout the week and it re-heated wonderfully in the microwave. Another success!

Made this last night and love it. I'm freezing this into individual portions and will reheat in microwave for a hot breky. I omitted the nuts and serve with a scoop of Greek yogurt or vanilla yogurt very, very good. Thanks

I was really excited to try this recipe bc I love pumpkin and it had such good reviews. I did not like it, I found the consistency to be mushy, it reminded me of baby food :( I followed the recipe exactly.

I've made this three times already - twice using no sugar and a bit more honey -- all three time using no baking powder because I don't have it. Delicious every time. It kind of reminds me of bread pudding with a syrup base -- don't skimp on the honey on top of the bananas. Thanks!

I made your pumpkin butter recently and I was looking for a way to use up some of it. Is it possible to substitute the pumpking puree with pumpkin butter? Or would that make it too runny? Any other suggestions for the pumpkin butter? I've tried the skinny overnight oats in a jar (which is delicious). Just hoping for additional ideas.

My son has a dairy allergy but he loves oatmeal. Is the egg absolutely necessary? I know I can replace the milk with his rice milk but I'm concerned about the egg. In vegan recipes I can use unsweetened applesauce as an egg replacer. Have you ever tried it with unsweetened applesauce before?

ohh, I'm a die-hard old-fashioned oatmeal with blueberries person, but I think I need to try this. I love pumpkin and I have a bunch of brown bananas.

to the person who asked about regular oats above, I think you could just cook them first for 5 minutes and then use them, or maybe soak them in yogurt overnight, uncooked...I think I will do that, actually.

This was delicious! I was wary of the banana on the bottom and not sure how the pumpkin would be on top, not mixed with the oatmeal, but I liked it. It was like pumpkin pie! I only had old-fashioned oats, and I used maple syrup not honey and omitted the nuts so I could feed some to my one-year old. He loved it! I enjoyed mine with walnuts. Thanks! I'll be making this again. I might try mashing the bananas on the bottom next time.

Thank you so much for this recipe - my house smells wonderful and my stomach is so happy. It tastes like pumpkin custard and those bananas are out of this world. I used homemade pumpkin puree instead of canned but otherwise followed this to a T and it was perfect.

Love this! I just made some this morning and it will become a staple in my house for breakfast. All three of my kids thought they were eating a dessert for breakfast! I only omitted the nuts because DD doesn't like them and used Fat Free evaporated milk instead, but it came out wonderfully!

Ali IS WRONG!When you put a fruit into the recipe builder...ie the BANANA...the recipe builder from WW does not understand words. That is why the banana gets points.When you cook with a fruit.....it does NOT give it points.Ali should read.....YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT FRUIT ANSWERED FROM WW. Fruit that has no points, does not get points when it is baked.

Yum! It definitely looked odd when it came out of the oven and I had to skip the nuts because I didn't have any. The bananas kind of turn purple. But it was a delicious, easy and filling breakfast. I froze the pieces individually and brought them into work to microwave and it was just as good.

I currently have this baking in the oven and just realized I did not use quick oats!! We will see how that goes...there are some nut allergies in the family so instead of pecans I decided to sub in a few tablespoons of sweetened coconut.

Delicious! I omitted the brown sugar and pecans, then when I serve each piece I sprinkle a teaspoon of brown sugar on top. That makes it 4 WW points (I think/hope!). I also used old fashioned rolled oats - baked for 30 minutes with foil on top, then removed foil for another 15 minutes. Thanks for the recipe!

I just made this and I'm stuffing my face straight from the dish. It is so delicious I will make this again. I followed the recipe and did not change a thing which is unlike me. If you love pumpkin this is a keeper.